Seeds 2014 Production Notes: Santa Launch

Here’s some a wee bit of production info on our Santa Launch reprise from Seeds Conference 2014 Night 2:

This past Christmas we did a song called “Santa Launch” that incorporated us flying Jordan above the stage as part of the choreography. We kind of like him, so we took extra care to make sure this element captured the fantasy of the desired creative moment without sacrificing any of his safety. It was such a cool moment we decided to do it again and share it with the Seeds crowd.

Doing a fly maneuver manually is a theatrical trick that’s been done many, many times, but it was a bit daunting as it was the first time WE had attempted this and we had quite an elaborate set and rigging to contend with. Couple that with the fact that I wanted to train our own COTMProd members to man the ropes, it’s no shock that some apprehension might be expected. All in all though, the fly-gag went flawlessly at Christmas and went great again when we recreated in for this year’s Seeds Conference. To me, the coolest thing about this number was how the technical side came together with the music, dance, and creative side to make a truly memorable and fantastic moment.

It seemed like it would be interesting to combine some backstage footage from one of our Seeds Santa Launch rehearsals with the finished product from Night 2 just to let everyone catch a glimpse of what was going on in the back to pull this off. You can watch it below and you can watch the entire service from night 2 of Seeds Conference here.

Andrew Stone is the Production Manager and Audio Director at Church on the Move in Tulsa, OK. His 27 years of touring experience have brought a unique, and sometimes unorthodox, perspective to his approach towards production in the church. He has been a key part of changing the culture behind COTM's live events and he loves sharing his knowledge with other churches. He's been married for 20 years, rarely wears anything but black, and genuinely loves to rock. You can find him on Twitter (@stone_rocks), Instagram (cotmprod), and is a blog contributor on Seeds, COTM's free resource site.